Tagged: jim hendren

In a few days, many of us will gather with friends and family to give thanks. Last week, two Arkansas legislators — one a Republican, one a Democrat — provided us with a couple of reasons to thank them for good service.

President-elect Trump said during his campaign that repealing and replacing the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act would be a top priority of his administration. Now he and his fellow Republicans have their chance.

Arkansas lawmakers broke a stalemate over the state's hybrid Medicaid expansion Tuesday after Democrats acceded to an unusual plan that'll require them to initially vote to end the subsidized health insurance for thousands of poor people.

A task force formed to study the future of Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion gave Gov. Asa Hutchinson the bargaining chip he wanted as he starts negotiating changes to a program covering more than 200,000 people. But it also avoided giving a definitive answer about the expansion's future.

A legislative task force began finalizing its recommendations on the future of Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion on Tuesday, as a top lawmaker urged colleagues to avoid fights over details about changes to a program that's providing coverage to more than 200,000 people.

Months after Arkansas lawmakers avoided another protracted fight over the future of the state's compromise Medicaid expansion, the nation's highest court could throw the Legislature back into an all-too-familiar debate over a key part of the federal health care law.

Arkansas would have one of the longest waiting periods in the nation before a woman could have an abortion under legislation given final approval Monday, which also changes the information a woman must be given before undergoing the procedure.

Thousands of people enrolled in Arkansas' compromise Medicaid expansion would receive notices that their coverage is ending - even though lawmakers haven't decided the program's future - under a proposal approved Monday by the Senate.

The measures lawmakers are taking up this week to avert a looming increase in teacher health insurance premiums and ease an influx of state inmates crowding local jails won't completely solve either problem.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe says he's open to the idea of a special legislative session to address health insurance plans for public school employees as long as there's a consensus among lawmakers about it.

Someone else might describe it as hypocrisy that Rep. Jim Hendren recommended moving part-time public school employees off the state’s health insurance plan so that they would be eligible for federally subsidized insurance under Obamacare - plan Hendren opposed, but not me. I’m the lottery opponent whose sons have benefited from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery to the tune of $24,000 so far. Like Hendren (and undoubtedly other members of his task force), I’ve just tried to make the best use of what I consider a bad policy.

A proposal to allow private property owners to seek compensation if their property values decline by at least 25 percent because of changes in zoning or other laws has failed to get out of an Arkansas legislative panel.